Porto

Oh, Porto. . .what a fine day we had together. The sun shining down on us; a small car that was able to get us up and down hills and over a river back to our hotel; a small, river-side restaurant that was able to provide us with sustenance; hitting the various port houses in time for english tours; and, all that delicious port. I guess, technically, I should address this ode to the town of Vila Nova de Gaia since that's where the port houses are located, but we'll stick to Porto.

On this particular Tuesday, the first task was to find the rental car agency to pick up our car for the next 4 days. Needing a bit of time to myself, I decided that I would walk to the rental car agency, nevermind how far away it appeared on the map, I would be able to make it in decent time. We'll kind of. Anyway, walking the streets of Porto was interesting- nothing appeared to be new. And I wasn't walking in the old part of town either. After walking down one hill then up another, I found the rental agency. Walking there, I was tempted to stop in various pastry stores and other retail shops, but there were bigger things to be had on that day. I get the car, a ridiculously small Nissan Micra. Hop in the car, and head back to the hotel to pick up Meg. Again, relying on the map and my general sense of direction, I encounter a few hiccups along the way- mainly dealing with one-way roads going the opposite way that I want to go. Nevertheless, I find my way to our hotel and there is Meg patiently waiting outside for me.

She gets in the car and we try to remember how our cab driver got us across the river the night before- we are both able to remember various aspects of it, and we successfully navigate our way down hill, to the small bridge and across without getting lost- all whilst navigating through small, stone-paved roads, bumping downhill wondering what's around this turn. We survive and try to find our way to our first stop: Ramos Pinto. However, we can't find it along the road. We know it's on the road that runs along the river, but no such luck. But, we do find a parking garage, so we take advantage of that, and park there. We walk back along the river and find it almost immediately- but, we walk up the steps to the door and it says, use side door entrance. So, we walk down the steps, and go around the corner, but there's no entrance. After a few minutes of wondering what to do, Meg offers up "Was there a sign saying which way to go?" So, we walk back up the front steps and there's an arrow pointing the other way. There's the stupid entrance. Walk in and ask "when's the next tour?" 20 minutes, we are told. "Well, can we try some port while we wait?" No, we don't serve until after the tour so you know how port is made. "Ok, well, is the next tour in English?" The language of the tour is decided by the first group that buys tickets for that tour, and no one has bought tickets yet. "Well, we'd like to buy tickets then." And with that, we wait for the tour to start.

The tour goes to their original office and sales room, and to the barrel room, where we get a short presentation on their vineyards up the Douro River. Pretty interesting. The tour ends with 3 samples of their port varieties. We end up buying another batch of tastings. What was interesting about these tastings, and it followed at the other port houses as well, is the difference in tastings from our visits to wineries in the states and the port houses- the wineries we visit in California pour a very small sample to taste, in the port houses, we get nearly a full serving. We buy three bottles, and drop them off at the car. Across the street from the parking garage is another port house, Ferreira, but their tours are full until the end of the day, so we go ahead and purchase our tickets for the end of the day. We go back to our car and decide to go to: Taylor-Fladgate.

I talked about Taylor-Fladgate in my previous post, so I don't necessarily need to go in-depth. We arrived, settled down for 2 tastings of port, and waited for the Taylor's tour to start. We walked through their gardens, and spent most of the tour in their barrel house. Finished the tour, and headed straight to shop to buy more port. This time, we opted for 12 port glasses with the Taylor-Fladgate logo on it, a bottle of their 2003 Vintage (NOTE- we thought we had a bottle of their 2000 Vintage, so we bought the 2003 so we could have the last two vintages. We got home and discovered we already had a bottle of the 2003. No worries, 2003 has gotten slightly better ratings than the 2000, but, we will eventually pick up a bottle of their 2000 vintage); a half bottle of 40 year, 2 bottles of their white port which we had enjoyed the night before and bottle of Select. Also, Taylor's does not take a siesta like some of the other port houses, so the timing of the whole thing worked out very well.

We left Taylor, trying to figure out our next stop: Offley is right next door, but no; Croft was just down the road, but again, no; we tried to stop at various doors with the Sandeman logo on it, but were rebuffed each time, as the tasting room was down the hill; no, we decided to drive down the hill toward the river, drive along the river, and drive back up a hill and go to Graham's.

This was a great stop- Graham's had just re-opened from their siesta, and Meg and I were the only two people in the entire tasting room. We were offered a flight of 3 of their ports, one of them being their Six Grapes, which we've had before; since the purpose of these stops was to try ports we haven't had before, we asked if we could try a different one. They said ok, and we got started. Each were delicious. We enjoyed them so much, we asked to look at their other tasting options, and we then moved to their tasting bar. Basically, the interior looks like any normal tasting room interior- lots of tables and chairs, a long counter from which the pourers stand behind and pour the port. Dividing the room is a glass wall, on the other side of which are some barrels and other tools of the trade. On the tasting room side of the wall, however, is a 8 seat bar where they pour more of their specialty and more expensive ports. This is where we sat. Meg and I chose two different sets of tastings- mine focused on their single quinta vineyards and Meg's more on their classic vintages. As explained previously, there are designated Vintages; however, in non-declared Vintages, the winery may designate certain single vineyard (or quinta) vintages, where the year itself may not meet the standards, but the product coming out of one particular vineyard may meet those overall standards. In which case, the port house will release single vineyard vintages. We had such a good time with our pourer, who will be working in Napa this fall, she gave us a map of their vineyards for free. We ended up buying a 1979 single vineyard vintage, a bottle of their 2000 Vintage, their "The Tawny" which comes in a large clear bottle that can then be used as a decanter, a 1999 single vineyard vintage (under the Dow's label- Graham's own the Dow name), and a bottle of their white port. We had a great time at Graham's, but there was more port to be had, but, before that, all these full pours of port (port measures in at between 18-20% alcohol; your normal bottle of wine comes in at 14% or so) resulted in us being just a bit drunk, so we had to stop for food first.

Once again we parked at the parking garage, and along the river is an outdoor shopping center with several restaurants. After deciding to skip the irish bar and restaurant, we settle on an italian place. The food was fine, and I had my first chance at a Portuguese beer- Super Bock. Not impressed, not to mention that it was pretty skunky. I don't know if that's its normal smell or if this draft was not kept well. In any event, we filled up on carbs, and headed to our next stop: Sandeman.

Everyone knows the Sandeman logo, it's the black and yellow image of the man with the wide brimmed hat and cape, holding a glass a port. It's pretty universal- so universal that Meg's sister knowing that we liked port bought us the poster of their label, not because she thought we liked their port, but because she thought we would like the image.

We walk in, and are asked if we want a tour. It being a bit late in the day, and with a 5:00 PM tour and tasting at Ferreira, we say no, but ask if we can do a tasting. They say ok, and we walk to the tasting area. The tables are all in black, the walls are all in black, there's a glass wall that separates the tasting room and sales room from a sample barrel room, and the people working there wear black shirts. Also, the people giving the tours wear a wide brimmed hat and a cape, just like the man in their logo. We are offered 2 glasses to sample their port, and they are very good. We end up buying a serving tray with the logo on it, and a bottle of their 20 year port, their Imperial and a single vineyard vintage from 2005. We stumble out the door with some time to kill before our next appointment.

Now, the goal all along had been to taste and purchase port that may not be readily available in the states, which we had been doing a pretty good job of with the major houses, but another goal had been to taste those houses that are completely unavailable in the states, and that was our next stop: Vasconcellos. Their tasting room is on the second floor, and we learn that Vasconcellos has been family owned since their beginning (appropriately enough, the current Vasconcellos heir and wine-maker was the one pouring the wine). We sampled several of their wines, including a 20 year that is bottled in a decanter. We bought the 20 year with decanter- it came in a wooden box. Upon leaving the establishment it occurs to us: how are we going to pack this thing? But, we would figure that out later. Anyway, we moved on, stopped at our car to drop off our recent purchases, and headed for our tour at Ferreira.

Ferreira, like the other tours, took us through their history and their barrel rooms before finishing at the tasting room. One thing that is unique about Ferreira is that the dominant person in their history is a woman; the other houses we visited, and presumably most of the other houses, are all fronted or founded by men, whereas Ferreira's image is of a woman. This is evident in the name of one of the ports they produce- Dona Antonia. We bought two bottles, and headed back to our car.

On our way back, we decided that we wanted to taste more port, so we stopped at a small port store just on the other side of the river (in Porto) to check them out. The store, Vinologia, was fantastic, and the people that worked there were extremely friendly and helpful. Vinologia also focuses on smaller producers, which was also a major draw for us. We talked with one of the employees about what we liked, what we were interested in, and he showed us several bottles and poured us one of them which he had opened. We ended up buying two more bottles here, both from small houses- 2000 Magalhaes and a 2005 Quinta do Crasto (which is one of my new favorite wineries- they also produce table wine in addition to port). We also bought 3 boxes to transport our port and wine back to states in safely (that turned out not to necessarily be the case, but no matter), and then we headed back to our hotel to rest.

Upon reaching the hotel and parking the car, we had thought about stopping in the hotel bar to have a drink before going back to the room and figuring out dinner plans, but. . .we received no help at the bar, so we just went to the room. At which point. . . . . . . .someone passes out on the bed and cannot be roused. I'm not saying who it was, just that it was someone. The other person, meanwhile, decided to watch tv to continue trying to figure out this language. Instead, several channels in english were part of the cable, so the other person watched movies like Glory and some old movie with Michael Douglas and a pre-Magnum PI Tom Selleck. IMDB tells me the movie is called Coma, was made in 1978 and was directed by Michael Crichton. Anyway, the person who was passed out finally awakes, but much too late to go out and get food, so we just end up snacking on whatever we have left, which was mainly cashews and peanuts.

With that, we finished one long day in Porto tasting port nearly non-stop, pushing one person over the edge of sobriety. I'd call that a good day. We certainly had a great time just being in Porto with the sun shining and drinking port all day long. Just experiencing it was great- it was like the first time we went to Napa, just being there made us feel like everything is right in the world. The memories of the billboards on the side of the hill, talking with the people in the port houses, the smells inside the barrel rooms, walking on the concrete, seeing the river and looking back across to Porto- these things, these memories will not be forgotten, the pictures taken, these long-winded ramblings of mine only help to remember them better. So, it was with a mild sense of sadness that we were leaving Porto the next day, and that our trip only had 2 more days left in it, but knowing that we were here, that we could come back here, and that we would have, not only the pictures and my ramblings, but also the bottles. Yes, the bottles of port serve as the most tangible reminder of our trip- each time we look at one, each time we open a bottle, pour it, look at it, smell it and taste it, it can take us back to when we visited, when we bought it, and when we share it.